Deploying Drivers That Require Setup

First post here, hopefully I've posted in the correct place... apologies if not.

We have just got SCCM and I'm trying to install some drivers as part of an OS deployment task sequence. Most drivers are working fine as I can extract the INF files and install these using the "Apply Driver Package" step in the sequence. However there are a couple of drivers (mobile broadband card and a fingerprint reader device) that need to be installed from a setup.exe (I believe these are known as "bad" drivers in the packaging world). So I created application packages for these and tried to install them via the "Install Software" step, using setup.exe -s as the Program to run, but this always fails with the following error (same error for both drivers):

The task sequence execution engine failed executing the action (Install Dell Mobile Broadband Card Drivers) in the group (Dell Latitude E4310) with the error code 50
Action output: The operating system reported error 50: The request is not supported.

So then I tried running a command line step rather than software install step, and ticked the box for "disable 64 bit file system redirection" but now I get the error "the required subsystem is not available" so then I tried it without that box ticked but still got the same error.

Anyway got any suggestions for what to try next or how to troubleshoot this?

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Hi
You have to read the smstslog on the local computer, itÃ‚Â´s not an easy work to try to find out the reason, but as you surely know your setup.exe must run silently, and sometimes with a local admin account, it may also need netframework or something else installed first. But I wonder if this is not a better way to solve your issue: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Business+Client+Operating+System+Deployment.
As you are new to OSD may i suggest you do not repeat my mistake and import drivers unless you have no choice. Just setup driver packages, It will do the job and in a year or 2 you do not have to try to find 50 drivers in different packages just to update 1 computer .model

Thanks for that link, that's great that I can just download the CAB file for our models from there with all drivers in :) I'll download that on Monday and see if we can just use those drivers rather than the setup.exe

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the driver packages though. You say not to import drivers and to use driver packages instead but aren't driver packages just a group of imported drivers?

Unfortunately the "Driver" world is very different from the .exe world.

I wonder if your -s switch was correct. Be sure to run the exe manually (Start > cmd.exe) by entering the setup.exe /?. Hopefully a window will pop up showing you the appropriate switches to install silently (and suppress reboot, if required, etc.).

Once you have your switches set be sure to test manually using the cmd.exe window. Once it installs with no user interaction using this method, then you're ready for installing via SCCM (or Tivoli, batch, PDQ Deploy, etc.).

Let us know if you hit quicksand. We've all been there before (it tastes horrible).